The Jeremy Kyle Show (Thursday 15th 2018)

The following is a collection of notes on the episode we are studying, and come from Michael's notes when watching the show and various student suggestions. Please remember that it's in note form, but it should be great for revision. Please let Jack or Michael know if you have anything that needs to be elaborated. 

Regulation

• ITV Hub's regulatory framework is limited to say the least. A self declaration is required to watch The Jeremy Kyle Show, to 'prove' the user is over 18, despite the fact that such a regulation is over the top, especially as the programme was broadcast at 09:25, way before the watershed. This clearly suggests a desire to escape litigation.

Sponsorship

• Sponsored by 'Slingo', a low rent Bingo app targeted specifically at a working class, middle aged female audience. Slingo advert actively parodies the JK show!!!

Advertising

• Dreameez - cat food
• Some biscuit
• A malteasers advert targeting working class women
• Thomas Cooke family resort holidays
• Seat mid range car advert Seat
• Cleaning products - bloo toilet cleaner, stereotypically female audience
• British heart charity advert
• Nivea men shaving range
• A BMW advert - surpring considering the core target demographic, though presumably a middle class secondary audience?
• Oven chips - Mcain - particularly working class mode of address with regional accent
• Vodaphone broadband
• Jaguar
• Mcvitties
• A financial scam awareness advert with a celebrity businessperson (that guy from The Apprentice)

"I blame my dad for my brother being beheaded"

• It's a big day for Shona, she's on the Jeremy Kyle show" - establishment of Jeremy Kyle show as essentially an important and valid metanarrative, and a potential way of seeking real world justice
• Kyle emerges in low angle shot, playfully slapping camera
• Consistent and regular audience reactions
• Ominous non-diegetic note played over grainy CCTV footage
• "He had been decapitated"
• Stereotypical working class representation, MES reinforcing these stereotypes includes obesity, lack of teeth and stereotypically working class clothing
• Kyle's body language is relaxed and welcoming,
• "Ee 'ad no 'ead"c- a statement possibly more suited to a police interrogation, complete with diegetic audience sighs and shocked noises.
• Why on earth is this show 'investigating' an unsolved murder? Is this ethical or even LEGAL?
• "I blame my dad for my brother being beheaded" - alarmist and hyperbolic lexis presented in a constant anchoring graphic at the bottom of the screen
• Awkward monologue is rewarded with a round of applause
• "If you don't do that, cracks start to appeal [sic]"
• [hand on knee] "I think you're amazing by the way"
• Kyle - "it's very difficult for me", placing him in the centre of the narrative
• Range of audience reaction shots emphasis the gravity of the situation. "I think you're amazing by the way"kyle intones, further anchoring the audience in to the position that she is the faultless protagonist
• Kyle "were you a good father" - blunt, interrogative mode of address
• Editing - dramatic music and a pale filter over the 'coming up' montage, and each segment starts with a 'best of' montage
• MES of leather furniture - quality and professionalism
• "she's your daughter, mate"..."I don't think you know her at all"
• Kyle's lexis is approachable yet more sophisticated than who he is hosting. words such as "polarised" "ironically" "heinous", though occasionally slips to a working class lexis, eg "slag her off", "mate", "pal"
• "Your daughter is next to you pal [she's crying], do something about it!" - manipulative of both audience and performers
• Awkward, conflicted mode of address. Audience are invited to laugh, hate, cringe and emphasise. A simultaneous dual mode of address
• "we can't talk about people who aren't here" a blatant manipulation of narrative, all the while fulfilling regulatory guidelines
• "she is your daughter pal" becomes this narrative's catchphrase
• What on earth is a cold fish?
• "everyone behind me is going to agree", inferring a totality of consent
• Audience applause off screen promted and manipulated by
• I was left more cold by the answers, but we'll let you know how that goes" explicit suggestion that narrative will be concluded in a subsequent episode

"Stop accusing me of animal cruelty - I love my dog!"

• "Look at this my friends" - direct and inclusive mode of address to the audience. His tone completely changed, his voice now substantially more fast paced.
• "if you think I'm going any where near that wolf!" Now the audience are laughing frequently.
• Editing, series of freeze frames of obese woman entering stage, middle finger blurred in post-production
• Mode of address "do you think you're being lied to" requests audience to send in footage etc
• Previously montage
• "a jealous manipulative prostitute" [wooooooo!]
• Second section decidedly more comedic, Kyle's performance becomes more casual, sarcastic
• Clearly these characters are audience favourites, and have been bought back in in order to continue a narrative. Therefore is The Jeremy Kyle Show essentially an open continuous narrative, continually self-perpetuating, much like a soap opera?
• Kyle's long winded joke prompts rapturous audience response. The speed of his delivery increases significantly. Delivered with his hand on the shoulder of one of the guests. Personable, relatable, even fatherly.
• Anchorage of bassy rock music prompts repulsion as overweight 'antagonist' enters
• Consistent reference to relatable aspects like Facebook messaging
• Kyle is now say on the steps of the stage, in a carefully choreographed display of relatability and casual approachability
• "She says you're a prostitute" - again, manipulation of performers, construction of narrative
• Grainy, cut in video footage of dog licking woman's frace, grotesquery anchored and emphasised through windowed reaction shots of audience clutching faces in horror
• A dog is bought on stage to applause and ahhhhhs.
• "He's got a big pair of balls doesn't he", causual and racy lexis, even more oppositional to the first narrative. "even the dog's got two and I've only got one", reference to Kyle's testicular cancer.
• Dog starts barking, cameraman is bought in to the narrative, aruably a postmodern deconstruction of the limitations of the medium of television
• Continual close-ups of dog loungiging, barking
• It is difficult, with the constant cutaways and distractions, to make sense of the narrative
• "have you sold your body for sex? Have you ever sold your body for sex?"

I proposed then my fiancee confessed to being a cheat! Lie detector results

• "You might recognise my next guest from a previous episode" - another sequel to a previous classic
• "I can't believe we're doing this"
• 'Protagonist' enters in a camo-shell suit and attempts to give Kyle an elaborate handshake. Audience are delighted, even ecstatic.
• Kyle declares him to be a doormat in a pretty brutal character assassination
• Yet more dog footage, yet more audience responses
• Grainy mobile phone shot of the reoccurring symbolic code of the 'reclining chair'
• Carol enters to boos and jeers. Kyle calls her a lying cow. Manipulative and mean spirited
• Strong Liverpudlian accents
• At this stage the episode has become exhausting
• Show ends with a teaser for a Kyle fronted show on gangs, which seems to be similarly exploitative